WHAT WAS CLAIMED
China has declared a state of emergency over the “new” virus hMPV.
OUR VERDICT
False. The virus is not new and China hasn’t declared a state of emergency.
AAP FACTCHECK – An outbreak of a common virus in northern China has triggered false claims on social media that it's a new pathogen that could trigger a pandemic.
Experts say human metapneumovirus (hMPV) was first described more than 20 years ago and is a common illness.
A sharp rise in cases of flu-like hMPV in northern China in late December 2024 has sparked concerns among social media users.
A Facebook post's caption claims the "Chinese Health Ministery [sic]" has declared a state of emergency in response to an outbreak of hMPV, which the caption describes as a "new virus".
Some posts claim the virus emerged from China, while other posts claim the new disease has broken out like COVID: "The world is on the brink of a similar journey to Covid19, after the symptoms of a new virus called hMPV were seen in China."
An X post describes the emergence of hMPV as a "new pandemic": "Bill Gates warned about the imminence of another global pandemic and here we go."
HMPV, however, is not a new virus that has recently emerged in China.
Infectious disease and pandemic preparedness expert Amesh Adalja said hMPV was a common respiratory virus globally.
"HMPV is a virus that jumped from avian species into humans probably a few hundred years ago," Dr Adalja told AAP FactCheck.
"It's not a new virus but was first described in 2001."
He said the symptoms, including fever, cough and congestion, were the same as most upper respiratory tract infections, including COVID-19, but hMPV was "a virus that everybody has always gotten before the age of five."
New Zealand vaccine expert Helen Petousis-Harris said hMPV didn't cause the same systemic complications as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, such as blood clotting issues, loss of taste and smell and long-term post-viral illness.
She said the virus was also common in NZ, as demonstrated by a journal article on hMPV hospitalisations from 2012-2015 by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
"This is neither new nor rare," Dr Petousis-Harris told AAP FactCheck.
She said the Chinese hMPV outbreak did not have the characteristics to cause a pandemic, such as explosive transmission speeds, higher severity and mortality and significant mutation trends.
"The misinformation surrounding its origins and impact is part of a broader trend of fearmongering narratives that distort public perception of infectious diseases," Dr Petousis-Harris said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said hMPV was one of the viruses that caused the common cold in a Q&A article on January 10, 2025.
"It was first identified in 2001 and has been spreading among people for many decades," the WHO article said.
"It is found around the world."
A University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover research paper said HMPV was discovered by researchers in 2001, and retrospective studies showed it had "been circulating in humans for at least 50 years."
A WHO spokesman confirmed to AAP FactCheck that China had not declared a state of emergency in relation to the hMPV outbreak.
Epidemiologist Margaret Harris said respiratory infection cases in China were within the usual range for a winter season in a WHO press briefing on January 7, 2025.
She said Chinese authorities also reported lower hospital utilisation than during the same period in 2024.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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